One day in the rain

There was a sharp pain near Michael's left shoulder. He had prepared himself for it, but it was just as displeasant as always. The pain was even enough to make some sound out of him. ''Don't try to hide the pain from attachement''. A figure near the ARM started to put tools back into a box. ''It's the easiest way to tell that everything works like it should. Try moving it''. Michael did what the man had said. First the fingers moved up and down in a wave. This motion was quickly repeated and followed by a swift shift into a fist. The man with the tools found that action a little overly dramatized, but decided not to mention about it. Michael was well aware from his seldom dramatic actions.

Powerful lights around the room illuminated it. The fist glimmered a little due to them. Natural light would have looked better, but it was a typical London weather that day. This meant cloudy weather with a chance of rain. Michael raised himself to sit on the table. His upper body was without a single particle of clothing. This was only because the attachement had to be done shirtless due to the nature of the said prodecure. But Michael was okay with it. It didn't make him feel uncomfortable at all. This was all because of the person who had overhauled his ARM for many years by now. But Michael couldn't be bothered to put his shirt on yet. His right hand moved over on the top of the wrist of his ARM. Michael slid it open to see glowing numbers displayed on a screen inside of it.

21:38

''And you didn't tamper with the chronometer either. Thanks''. ''I know that arm better than you, so don't worry about it. And you could call it just a clock, like most of the people''. Michael seemingly ignored that last sentence and started to dress up. First, the sleeveless black vest. ''You've been visiting here less than usual, Have you finally found a permanent job?'' Zipper on the vest was fully closed. That meant that his thick, red jacket with a hood was next. Although this required Michael to raise from the ''table'' to stand on the floor. ''Now that you mention it, I have. And while the work is hard and the payment is low, it should get easier after a promotion''. The zipper on the jacket came fully closed as well. Michael walked, and almost rushed, towards the door. ''It was nice seeing you, Anthony''. ''If that's the case, then you should come to visit more often''. It was that sentence that finally made a smile appear on Michael's mouth. His figure turned around while maintaining his hand on the doorknob. ''I would, trust me. But the work is keeping me quite busy at the moment''. The scarred blond man rushed out of the door very quickly after saying few final words. ''See ya''.

Anthony heard the door closing from the living room. He had a slightly worried look on his face as he put the toolbox back into its drawer. He didn't put the lights out yet. Instead, he decided to continue this one book he had been reading. Anthony set his glasses on the table as he sat down onto a comfortable chair. This moment should have been relaxing. But Anthony had one thing keeping that moment from being that. His hand, the one that wasn't holding a book, reached down his pocket and emerged while holding something. Something that shone like that automai... sorry, ARM he had just checked. Although it had a coppery color instead of grey metal. It had been dropped from Michael's pocket during the checkup. It was more than obviously by an accident. Anthony placed it on the desk as well, with its flat end down. ''I don't know what you're trying to do...'' his hand got placed on the book like the other one already was. ''But don't get into any troubles''. The bullet just stood there and shone.

It didn't come as a surprise that it started to rain. and yet, despite of that, Michael hadn't brought an umbrella with him. It wasn't that his own apartment was far away, like it wasn't. He would still get as wet as river Thames. Michael came up with a logical solution to this dilemma and initiated it. And by ''initiating it'', he meant ''enter that cafe to your right''. There weren't many customers in there. In fact, there were only two customers. Michael and one other person who was sitting near the entrance. The clothes that the person was wearing were wet as well. Michael walked up to that person as he raised the hood from covering his face. ''I assume that the rain got you as well''. Another idea popped into his mind. He could kill some time talking with this stranger.

...a rather bizarre idea, come to think of it. But it was worth of trying. ''Mind if I sit here?'' he said as he pointed at the opposite chair.

Ah, this was woooooonderfuuuuul.

Sent to Creta on business, to talk to some dude, honestly, Ini could care less who, and she FIRSTLY, couldn't FIND the dude, and secondly, had just managed to stumble into this building, as her cane-thingy sucked in the rain. It actually sucked pretty much in general, but that's besides the point. Either way, she had no sense of hax-sight, so she was currently as blind as ever, having to cane-smack people to find her way around. But she had managed to sit her grumpy self upon a chair, and was sipping at a lemonade when some dude just sort of, eh... Burst in and started talking, presumably to her. Of course, she knew little to no Cretan, so his words were comically, lost. "Yo, dude-guy. Speak some crap, I know, eh? Speak Xingese? Amestrian? Cerisian? Drachman?" Well, if he didn't speak any of those, he was pretty screwed. Thankfully, people these days tend to be AT LEAST bilingual...

So, on the assumption he spoke Xingese, be it, or be it not, true, she spoke once more. "Well don't just stand there, you're letting the rain in! Sit down, sit down somewhere! If you keep holding that door open, I'll catch my death, and you'd be next." A sip of lemonade, and back to her glaring aimlessly at the wall in front of her.

Michael was a bit surprised to hear Xing as an answer. Granted, London had tourists. But that didn't make this moment even a bit less surprising. Moving on...

Despite of the person speaking Xingese, Michael did understand what she was saying. He had studied Xingese for Alkahestry. On that note, he could also understand two of the three other languages she had listed. ''Possibly Esparian?'' But that wasn't the relevant matter at the moment. Maybe in the future, but not now.

The relevant matter was (probably) what the girl was telling Michael to do. With a rather loud voice as well. This simple matter was closing the door. Michael had to check this by turning his head slightly left. ''Oh, it really is open still''. One couldn't simply blame Michael for that. Or couldn't blame much. He had been lost in the situation and the door was located on the side where he possessed a bit weaker sight. Realizing this mistake, he closed the door. The sound of the rain diminished as it clicked. And before the door could close, Michael managed to get seated on the nearest seat to watch that the door would close. This seat happened to be the one he had pointed at earlier, the one opposite to the seat of that tourist. After confirming that the door would closed, Michael turned his gaze (and head as well) towards the girl.

''I was simply noting that the rain got you as well''. And about sitting where he was sitting right now. But he had already considered the fact that the girl had said something along the lines ''sit somewhere'' was enough to raise an answer ''well, why not here''. ''In any case, what might bring you to Creta?'' She might have been a resident as well. But seeing that she couldn't understand Cretan at all, it was highly unlikely.

Paige was walking in the rain going to her local boarding school. It started raining and she did not had an umbrella so she went under a closed shop's hood. Not use to London, Paige was indeed lost. She looked around all she could see was a cafe'. She tried to find a town map but none were around. The rain was getting heavy. She could not stay under here forever I she sprinted to the cafe'. Paige saw two adults speaking with each other. She did not want to disturb them with a question on how to get to her school. She sat in a chair and watched the rain from the window. The sound of the rain beating the window was some-what calming. She closed her eyes and listened to the rain. She then remembered why she came in here. She looked at the man. She also looked at the women. She could speak Xingese so she thought she would just ask and be on her way. "S'cuse me sir and ma'dam do you know where Moffats Boarding school is?"

Ah, stupid, stupid man. Took a bit for him to realize that he had even left the door hanging open to begin with! To be fair, most doors swung close on their own so you can walk right in, but that one was not amongst that caste of doors. And, quite frankly, he didn't take a long time, so much as a certain Xingese woman was highly impatient and angry at well... Everything. Anyways, he said something a moment later, and while Ini made no attempt to glance in his direction, partially rudeness, partially the fact that she had no reason to do so, she did listen to his words, not particularly interested, more accurately, too bored with the rain to ignore him.

Ah, so he'd been noting that she too was soaked. Her face shifting to an expression of mock surprise, she spoke in a tone all too honey-sweet with sarcasm. "No way! Are you serious? I had absolutely no idea that my entire body is dripping enough rainwater to flood the room. Gee, thanks for the heads up." Rolling her eyes, she carried on staring out the window, as she decided to answer his second question, this time with a slightly less sarcastic tone, but not without her general venom. "Well, I work at South HQ in Amestris, and I was supposed to meet with some government dude, but it started raining, so I came in here. Honestly, General Brighton is great and all, but her subordinates suck. They gave me a picture of the guy and a name, to find him. Wanna know the best part? All the info was on paper, which got soaked in the rain." Here she gave off one of those dry laughs, devoid of humor, but quite comprehending the irony of the situation; the blind woman being given a job with entirely visual instructions, and no method to find him any other way. What's worse is her social skills, which prevented her from asking anyone what the papers even SAID. Funny...

And the sound of increased volume of the rain, the smell of the outdoors wafting in, the creak of the door, and the gentle tapping of small footsteps alerted Ini to a newcomer. Well, it was fine, so long as they didn-...As Paige spoke, Ini noted that she'd spoken far too soon. WELL. If she ignored it, the thing MIGHT go away!~ Though the guy that was eh... Well, he sounded like he was in front of her, so she assumed such. The guy in front of her, he might actually attempt to communicate with it, so she figured it wouldn't go away too quickly, unless the girl was THAT fixated on getting to her boarding school.

Ah, Ini did have to envy her fortune though. She herself had barely passed the tenth grade, narrowly getting a GED, and her sister, the one for whom's education she had dropped out of school to support financially, was no longer able to attend school. Ah, life, it hated her so. And of course, the small child-thing had no idea just how lucky she was...

[Hey Paige, there's typically a posting order in most threads that way all the characters get to react in time to things. So please take note of that next time! <3]

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Paige saw the the woman looked slightly annoyed. Paige gave a faint smile and she knew that she being a pest. [color=red]"I-I- didn't mean to interrupt you i'm s-s-sorry SO sorry!"[/color] Paige never preferred Xingese and felt like she sounded emotionless when she spoke it. Embarrassed Paige shifts her head side to side looking for a restroom or some kind of exit. The man only stared at her which made her feel even worse. [color=yellow]"damn" [/color], Paige does not like cursing but it made her feel calmer. She said it in Drachman hoping they didn't understand it. even if they did she said it very VERY quietly. Paige spots the exit and grabs her bag. She still has no clue on how to get to Moffats Boarding School. She slips on her coat and heads for the door. Paige keeps thinking to herself why she even thought talking to a stranger would be a good idea. Paige hates talking to strangers but sometimes you get so lost you don't care who you ask directions from. Paige pushes open the door and goes out of the building. She is quickly frightened by the lightening outside and the heavy wind. Paige jumps and drops he bag. "[color=blue]Why does the world HATE me!![/color]"

"No way! Are you serious? I had absolutely no idea that my entire body is dripping enough rainwater to flood the room. Gee, thanks for the heads up." Sarcasm was figuratively oozing out of her words. Although the amount of it was a bit too much for Michael's taste. He hoped that it wasn't her Modus operandi. That would be bothersome. Annoying even.

"Well, I work at South HQ in Amestris, and I was supposed to meet with some government dude, but it started raining, so I came in here. Honestly, General Brighton is great and all, but her subordinates suck. They gave me a picture of the guy and a name, to find him. Wanna know the best part? All the info was on paper, which got soaked in the rain."

"Sounds quite annoying". This was Michael's reflexive answer. But he also remembered to keep the conversation going. ''And you have no other means to find that person?''. But what the woman had said did clarify a lot of things for Michael. For one, this person was clearly not from Creta or Xing, but from Amestris.

...then why was she speaking Xingese? Was she an immigrant? Had one of her parents been Xingese? Those were his only explanations for this matter. But there was another weird thing as well. Amestrian military seemed quite competent. Why hadn't they given this woman some information to locate that person that she was looking. Like a written note about his/her address. Or instructions of how to get to the person Or...

...

''Oh''. Michael's attention didn't seem to be concentrated at all today. The eyes! Things got a bit clearer now. Although that wouldn't still close out all the ways of giving direction. There was the writing for the blind. Not to mention anything doing with an audio. The only option left was that the task had been delegated to her from a higher up. Michael was quite sure about this theory. He had gotten the expression that this person couldn't be that high in the ranks.

But there was something about concentrating few moments ago. Michael had visibly improved in that department. He had noticed the girl before she had even opened her mouth. Michael's turn turned towards the girl as she spoke.

"S'cuse me sir and ma'dam do you know where Moffats Boarding school is?" It was a very simple question. Seeing that the militant didn't seem to know much about London, she wasn't probably able to give a fulfilling answer. Michael, on the other hand, lived in that city. And yes, he did know where that school located. "I do know where that school is located. Unfortunately I don't possess a pen or some sort of object to use it on". Michael started to switch his gaze between the two people. "Would neither of you have at least one of the two?"